California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Koehn (right) hands Officer Sean Deise paperwork during a traffic stop in East Oakland. The city has approved additional funding for California Highway Patrol officers.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Koehn (right) hands...

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Koehn watches as a man tries to fix his car's taillight after he was pulled over for expired registration in East Oakland.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

Koehn watches as a man tries to fix his car's taillight after he...

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California High Patrol Officer Robert Koehn makes a stop in East Oakland. The CHP is helping Oakland police in tough areas.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

California High Patrol Officer Robert Koehn makes a stop in East...

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CHP Officer Sean Deise checks the secondary weapons that he will carry for his shift in Oakland.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

CHP Officer Sean Deise checks the secondary weapons that he will...

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CHP Officer Sean Deise runs a sobriety check on a woman after detecting the presence of alchol during a traffic stop for a seatbelt violation on Bancroft and 78th Ave. in East Oakland, CA Thursday March 7th, 2013. Oakland officials have approved funding to pay for California Highway Patrol officers to help Oakland Police in the city's most troubled neighborhoods.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

CHP Officer Sean Deise runs a sobriety check on a woman after...

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CHP Officer Robert Koehn is seen through the windshield of his police cruiser as he speaks with an elderly driver that appeared to be stalled as she was trying to make a left turn in East Oakland, CA Thursday March 7th, 2013. Oakland officials have approved funding to pay for California Highway Patrol officers to help Oakland Police in the city's most troubled neighborhoods.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

CHP Officer Robert Koehn is seen through the windshield of his...

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Officer Sean Deise heads out the door of the CHP Oakland offices to pick up his police cruiser at the start of his shift in Oakland, CA Thursday March 7th, 2013. Oakland officials have approved funding to pay for California Highway Patrol officers to help Oakland Police in the city's most troubled neighborhoods.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

Officer Sean Deise heads out the door of the CHP Oakland offices to...

The moment the driver in the green Lexus spotted a California Highway Patrol cruiser on 78th Avenue in East Oakland, she reversed the car, pulled into a parking spot and slouched behind the steering wheel.

"Come on, we see you," said Officer Sean Deise, who pulled the driver over for not wearing her seat belt.

As the driver rolled down her window, Deise caught a whiff of peach-flavored alcohol.

"A seat-belt stop that turned into a DUI investigation," said Deise's partner, Officer Robert Koehn. "Now we'll see where this goes."

These streets, some of the most dangerous in a city beset by the highest violent-crime rate in the state, are also now the concern of the CHP, which has helped Oakland police patrol targeted neighborhoods since November. Last month, for the first time, the Oakland City Council agreed to pay the state for the officers to continue their work through April.

Critics weigh in

But the CHP patrols, which call for frequent traffic stops and emphasize high-volume contact with residents, have their critics. At the extreme end, a handful of antipolice activists view the tactic as the latest sign of an overbearing police state that targets the city's poorest neighborhoods. In the political arena, two members of the City Council who voted against the $162,000 contract characterized the approach as a piecemeal plan for fighting crime.

"It's the way in which we couched what we're paying for that I'm opposed to," said Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who along with Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney voted against the contract. The CHP officers, she said, are "not responding to 911 calls and priority-one calls," major crimes that include homicides, robberies and sexual assaults.

"The broader issue here," Brooks said, "is that we're playing into people's fears and pretending like we're doing stuff to address violent crime, and we're not. It's a Band-Aid approach, all smoke and mirrors."

The CHP officers aren't limited to making traffic stops. At a briefing last week for officers about to spread out across a 5-square-mile area of East Oakland, CHP Sgt. Ezery Beauchamp congratulated his troops for arresting an 18-year-old suspect wanted for murder. The man fled from CHP officers the previous weekend in an SUV and crashed into a tree in the Oakland hills.

"Let's do the same thing tonight," Beauchamp said.

Before they set out, Deise and Koehn were updated on a list of wanted suspects in Oakland, including alleged members of the city's Case and Money Team gangs.

"It's been like a mini-Iraq out here lately," said Koehn, who served as a Marine before he joined the CHP five years ago.

U-turn arrests

The partners have seen more action since their duties detoured from the freeways onto city streets. They once stumbled upon a gunman opening fire on a Corvette. On another occasion, they pursued a suspect who dumped a duffel bag that carried his identification and four loaded guns. They've provoked car chases by simply making a U-turn.

The CHP's main mission, however, is to perform rapid-fire patrol stops. In a 20-minute stretch Thursday along Bancroft Avenue between 73rd and 78th avenues, Koehn and Deise stopped a driver for having tinted windows, another for expired license-plate tags and a third for not wearing a seat belt. They hoped to make 25 to 30 stops before their shift ended at 2 a.m.

The idea is that people committing minor offenses might be more inclined to commit major ones. When it comes to crime, Koehn said, "I'd rather stop it before I get called out to it."

Keys to change

At a press conference Wednesday, one of the Police Department's outside consultants, former Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, cited three key components he believed would reduce the amount of violent crime in Oakland: improved technology, a larger police force and help from outside agencies like the CHP.

"When you have a small department," Bratton said, "you can't do it all. You have to have collaboration."

Oakland police Sgt. Chris Bolton, chief of staff to Chief Howard Jordan, said the CHP cruisers are a "visible deterrent" that frees Oakland officers to respond to 911 calls and allow city officers to perform more proactive policing.

Bolton said the California Police Chiefs Association suggests that officers spend a third of their time engaged in proactive work. The typical Oakland officer, he said, "is in the single digits" when it comes to finding time for such work.

"Every stop is one interaction that we would not have had" if officers were able to do more to head off crime before it happens, Bolton said.

Gang suspect's arrest

A few hours before Deise and Koehn took to the streets for their East Oakland patrol stops, Charles Eberhart, 21, attended a preliminary hearing in an Alameda County courthouse, where he was charged with evading an officer and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Eberhart, an alleged gang member, crashed his car Jan. 31 in East Oakland while fleeing from a CHP cruiser, authorities say. After CHP officers recovered a pistol with a 30-round magazine, they took Eberhart to a hospital for treatment of his injuries, then handed him over to Oakland police for questioning and booking. He pleaded not guilty.

"He was one of the guys the OPD wanted badly," Beauchamp said.

Relying on outsiders

Councilwoman Brooks says she appreciates the CHP's collaborative approach. But she worries that city officials are becoming too comfortable with paying outside help, such as state troopers or Bratton, to get their jobs done.

She fears that when the city draws up next year's spending plan, the costs of the patrols and outside contracts - which have yet to be factored into the budget, she said - will come at the expense of libraries and public services.

"We're spending a lot of money that wasn't budgeted for," Brooks said. "And then what? Nobody has talked about what's going to happen when everybody walks away and we're left to our own devices."